09/29/05

The annual took place on Thursday, September 29th, 2005, with nine Vancouver Canucks personalities hitting the streets of Vancouver to raise money and awareness for local family literacy programs. It was a soggy morning, but that didn't dampen the spirits of players Todd Bertuzzi, Brendan Morrison, Kevin Bieksa, Sami Salo and Mattias Ohlund who hawked special editions of the Vancouver Sun in exchange for donations to the Raise-A-Reader campaign.

Coach Marc Crawford hit up commuters at the Lonsdale Seabus terminal, while Canucks Senior Vice President and General Manager Dave Nonis and Vice President and Assistant General Manager Steve Tambellini grabbed SkyTrain riders at the Burrard Station. In addition, Canucks legend and new Canucks Scout Harold Snepsts braved the rain and joined the rest of the Canucks contingent in the downtown core. Canucks mascot Fin also created his usual ruckus, encouraging all the passer's-by to contribute to this great charity. At one point Fin even hopped onto a passing bus to visit those onboard to persuade them to make a donation.

Despite the rainy conditions, Raise-a-Reader day was a huge success! is part of the year-round Raise-A-Reader campaign that takes place in 13 cities across Canada: Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Windsor, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax.

On , high profile members of the community including Vancouver Canuck players and alumni, firefighters, police officers, Global TV and CH personalities along with editorial teams of the CanWest metropolitan newspapers join other local celebrities, sponsors, volunteers, and beneficiaries on downtown street corners in an effort to exchange special edition newspapers for donations to Raise-A-Reader. All money raised goes towards providing financial assistance and resources to family literacy programs in local communities, such as the Canucks Family Education Centre. In 2004, the Vancouver Raise-A-Reader campaign raised more money than any other city in Canada with a total of $740,000 raised!